Bills filed to address opioid crisis

Oklahoma state Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie, a member of the Commission on Opioid Abuse, has filed several pieces of legislation to address the opioid crisis. (Photo by Brent Fuchs)

OKLAHOMA CITY – A commission on curtailing the opioid crisis announced recommendations for the Legislature on Tuesday, but lawmakers have already filed several bills on the issue.

Bill filing deadline was Jan. 18, so most of the bills lawmakers will tackle this legislative session have already been submitted. Members can change the text within bills during the committee process. That is common for so-called shell bills, which contain vague boilerplate language that is intended to hold a bill’s place until the real policy pitch is updated.

State Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie, and state Rep. Tim Downing, R-Purcell, filed many of the bills. Last year, they introduced the resolution that created the Oklahoma Commission on Opioid Abuse, and they now serve on it. During the commission’s press conference, they talked about how opposition to many of those bills has likely waned as the abuse epidemic has become more obvious.

One of the commission’s recommendations called for introducing a Good Samaritan law. These allow drug users to call emergency medical services when a companion is experiencing an overdose without fear of punishment for possession. Downing introduced House Bill 2791, this year’s iteration of the proposed law.

Griffin has spent years filing legislation related to the opioid epidemic, including several bills that would have created a Good Samaritan law. Last year, she introduced a bill that would have created those protections, but it never got a hearing. During Tuesday’s press conference, she said a similar situation has unfolded year after year.

It might be different now, she said. The announcement came during a press conference at Attorney General Mike Hunter’s office, from which you can see the Capitol.

“There’s not an Oklahoman left whose family has not been impacted by this problem,” she said. “I think even my colleagues across the street understand we’ve reached a crisis in our state.”

State Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, filed Senate Bill 1446, which would make several updates to laws governing opioid prescriptions. Like Griffin’s bill, it defines different pains, including acute and chronic. It would require physicians to undergo two hours of pain management and opioid addiction education annually to get licenses renewed. It also would create a mechanism for doctors and patients to form a pain management plan.

Downing filed some of the shell bills that have titles indicating they will concern opioid legislation. He and other commission members said they plan to introduce a new tax on opioids that would pay for the treatment patients need to recover from their abuse. He said the recommendation is narrow, taxing only the manufacturers and producers of the addictive drugs, not the pharmaceutical industry as a whole.

“I do believe (this segment of the) pharmaceutical industry should pay for the treatment for its own products,” he said. “The alternative is, if you don’t attach a revenue stream to the product that caused it … it means you’re going to attack someone else.”

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